2020 Was A Year Filled With Uncertainty, What Can We Learn From It? And How Can We Thrive In This New Environment?
I don’t know if 2020 was as stressful for you as it was for me, but my guess is, chances are pretty good that it was. In my personal life, in 2020, my grandpa died in February and just a few short weeks later, my beautiful, kind, smart, sweet, youngest aunt in my family died at age 50 from cancer. Just a week after my grandpa’s funeral. And then they weren’t able to have a funeral for her right away because of COVID. In the meantime, we were in Colorado when the COVID shutdown started, so it was a challenge getting home from there.
My business took a huge hit in 2020, due to COVID and people staying home to be safe and healthy, which I totally understand, and I’m glad they did. But as a business owner is was most definitely the most stressful year I’ve had yet. And besides all of that, my extroverted self was unable to do any of my usual stress relief activities, which are usually things including spending time with friends and family, and a plethora of fun activities like going to a yoga studio, or to a movie, going out to eat, or to a concert, to a local play, or any of the myriad of things we were not allowed to do.
So I had a massive amount of stress in my life, in addition to no outlets for it… YUCK. Not to mention the other world/global/USA events in 2020 that were very stressful, with the pandemic going on at the same time. Not my favorite year for sure.
Did I handle this well in the beginning, NO… I downloaded an app on my phone called Smule where you can record songs with strangers and I recorded 25 songs in two days… we’re members of more streaming services than we have ever been, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, and Disney Plus. I spent a lot of time sleeping, and laying in bed, and I spent a lot of time in the garden, weeding, and growing/tending to plants and flowers. My mental state was not very good, I remember at least one day per month in 2020 I would have a day that I got totally stressed out, like mega stress. And sorry men if you’re reading right now.. heads up.. but when I get really stressed my period gets really bad when it comes, so I’m in tons of pain and not able to do anything else. My husband at one point during this came to the bathroom when I was in the bath, because he could hear me screaming from a different floor of the house, due to the pain being so bad, he got nervous because he had never seen that happen to me before. So yes, painful.
Image by roberto ruiz from Pixabay
Did I ever exercise?? Not really, pre-covid I usually did yoga 7 times/week, often I taught yoga 5 days/week and then would go to the studio to attend class 2/week. During COVID however, I think I didn’t exercise for at least 5 months. And maybe did yoga a grand total of 15 times from March - December.
Image by Rain Carnation from Pixabay
Struggle bus for sure. I read a few things that said stuff like, this would be a great time to learn something new! Or organize.. etc. That sounded nice, but I couldn’t find the motivation. That just sounded like, “Who in the world could do that right now?” If it was you, way to go, SERIOUSLY, I am so impressed with you.
So What Lessons Can we Take from 2020?
I said a few times in 2020, well I guess the whole world is getting a lesson in how to get comfortable with uncertainty. If you all have read any of my other blogs, you probably know that I have gone to a number of Tony Robbins events, and learned a ton of useful information there. One of Tony Robbin’s base knowledge teachings at his events is that all people have 6 human needs. If you haven’t heard of this before, here is his TED talk about it, granted this is a very short definition of it, but it will give you the idea..
As you can see in the video, our second human need is UNCERTAINTY. Which as he mentions, these are the unknowns, and surprises. Do we like these? Yes! If they’re good surprises right? A gift from someone, or a surprise party, a homemade meal you weren’t expecting, a visit from a friend. But we don’t really like bad surprises… like a flood, or a fire, something going wrong at work, a car accident, a slip and fall. Or a pandemic, for example..
I’m guessing pre-2020 most of you were like me. We loved the good surprises and the bad surprises stressed us out and sometimes could really get us bent out of shape. Now, I’m not saying that when bad surprises happen now, that I’m like “Yay!! I can handle this no problem, or I’m happy for this variety!” Hahaha, no way. However, instead of going into a downward spiral like, oh my gosh another huge problem. My brain and emotions are much more calm about it. I might think “well, this is inconvenient, or I bet there is a way to solve this issue. Or even, I’ll figure it out tomorrow or next week.” For me, that is a huge improvement over how I used to be. So maybe, like me, after 2020 you are more comfortable with uncertainty, which is a nice quality to have.
I saw a funny little video or cartoon partway through COVID. It was something like, if we woke up tomorrow and someone told us “Trees are now EATING people.” Pre-COVID, we would’ve all been like “OMG, terrifying!! No way!!” Vs. in the middle of COVID, it’s just like “Huh, Ok.” Which is the training I think we all have had during this pandemic, we now can handle uncertainty much better than we used to.
Lesson 2… how to be more content with a simpler life.
Pre-COVID I was a busy girl, plans every weekend, cramming things in, doing as much as possible at ALL times, RARELY having a weekend just at home. And I LOVED it. But we’ve all heard that good stress, is still stress. And I know that I wasn’t good at doing those less exciting things, that are important for our self care, but are less shiny, and exciting. Things like sitting quietly with a book and a cup of tea. Or doing meditation frequently. Or gentle yoga. Or taking a bath with some music playing. Or just taking time to BREATHE, if you haven’t taken a deep breath in a little while, pause to take one right now. Feels good, right?
However, due to an extreme excess of free time and very limited options for how to use it during COVID, I now have become very good at doing those self-care items, and often. And what I’ve found is that I have a much greater sense of contentment and calmness when I take the time to do these self care practices. And now that I’ve experienced the benefit of doing these items on a consistent basis, my fervent hope is that once the pandemic is over, I will still take the time to make this a part of my life.
Of course there are many more lessons from 2020, but I don’t want to keep you reading for too long ;)
How to Thrive in This Environment.. When most of us are starting to get COVID lifestyle-fatigue
Maybe thrive is too strong of a word? IDK. However, I really do feel like I have a new energy in this new year, and it does feel like a thriving to me. What’s changed? My mindset mostly. I take one day at a time. I don’t plan much into the future, beyond maybe the coming weekend. Of the limited plans I do have, I don’t take them as a concrete plan until it is literally happening. Because we just never know right now, correct? There could be a new outbreak or a new rule and your plan could change. And that’s ok. Guys, this is huge progress for me, I’m a HUGE planner, like plan way into advance, tons of things, and I am very committed to showing up for my plans once I’ve made them. For example, in the past, I was scheduled to teach a yoga class, but I had bad food poisoning that day, like couldn’t really leave the bathroom for a long period of time. And I knew I should get a sub for the yoga class, but I almost didn’t, because I thought, well I could could probably make that work… maybe I could push it to make it for one hour without puking or going to the bathroom… ridiculous right, I ended up getting the sub to teach for me, but I almost didn’t. That’s how committed I usually am to my plans.
FOCUS ON GRATITUDE, I’ve always been a proponent of gratitude, but in 2021, I’m focusing on it a lot, like several times per day. For the simple things. I’m grateful to have a house, I’m grateful to have a warm house, to have warm water for showers, I’m extra grateful to have a healthy family, grateful for my husband, and for my family and friends. Grateful to still have my business!! Thank you to my patients and animal owners!!
Image by Free-Photos from Pixabay
TAKE TIME TO RESET YOUR HEALTH, My husband and I found in 2020 that we ate less healthy than normal, and we drank more alcohol than normal. So to start off 2021 we’ve been eating healthy and for that past few months we’ve taken a break from alcohol other than a little for special occasions, I.e. we had some on New Years Eve. We’ve prioritized getting good sleep more, and taking time to de-stress. We’ve had some good, deep conversations and prioritized our relationship, and we’ve been working on more deeply understanding each other, working together and becoming closer. All good things. And when you prioritize your health, including mentally, physically, and spiritually, you just feel better.
Alright guys, those are my top 3 for now. Thanks for reading!! Now that I have my new website, I’m thrilled that I am now able to do my blog once again! It’s been forever since I had access to my website to have the ability to write these blogs for you. Hope you enjoy, and look for many more blog posts in the future! Peace, love, and good health wishes to all of you!! As I would say after teaching yoga, Namaste!
